Last Mile Gear sells its own high-performance Cascade product line alongside wireless equipment from a range of other manufacturers.

by Jeff Goldman [April 9, 2008]

The Washington-based wireless ISP Cascade Networks was founded in 2000. The ISP soon found itself struggling financially, however, and was taken over by one of its customers, Brian Magnuson, who "injected some capital and became an interested party in the company," according to company marketing director Jason Petrillo. Cascade, Petrillo says, now has about 1,700 wireless customers and approximately 350 dialup customers.

Magnuson, now the company's president, began working with the early versions of the Motorola Canopy product line, but Petrillo says he quickly saw some ways he wanted to improve upon the product. "The Canopy team was a very small organization at the time, and they said, 'We don't have the resources or the time right now to do those things, but they sound like good ideas: why don't you do it?'" he says.

Last Mile Gear PO Box 887 1324 Vandercook Way, Longview, WA 98632 Toll Free: (866) 230-9174 Sales: (360) 414-5990 Ext: 10 mailto: sales@lastmilegear.com

The result is the Cyclone product line, built by Cascade Networks using Canopy gear. "The access points and backhaul units that we produce under the Cyclone label are basically reworked Canopy units that are just taken to the highest level of performance allowable by the FCC, and ruggedized," Petrillo says. Key enhancements include the ability to cover a 120 degree or 360 degree area (rather than Canopy's 60 degree limit), higher output power, and a rugged aluminum housing.

Last Mile Gear
To sell the Cyclone products to other WISPs, Magnuson launched Last Mile Gear in June of 2003. In addition to Cyclone and Motorola Canopy products, Last Mile Gear also stocks equipment from Redline, Wireless Beehive, Andrew, Gabriel, Radio Waves, Transtector, Bluesocket, Panamax, and Alloptic.

The aim, Petrillo says, is to include only those products the company knows inside and out through its own WISP deployment. "It's why customers come back to us, because we know the product and we can support the product in a real world frame of mind," he says. "We've actually used—and do use every day—all the products that we sell and promote."

And the guidance the company is able to give those customers that call seeking help, Petrillo says, is a key strength. "We try to match the customer's requirement with the technology, first and foremost," he says. As a result, Petrillo says the vast majority of orders come in over the phone rather than online—though he says some returning customers who already know what they want do choose to order from the online store.

Petrillo says that while Last Mile Gear's pricing is competitive, they don't strive to be the lowest-cost option. "We don't want to be accused of driving margin out of the marketplace," he says. "If there's no margin, there's no real impetus to sell—and we don't ever want to be seen as someone who's ruining a market."

Delivery and returns
Ensuring speedy delivery of orders, Petrillo says, is a focus for the company. "We stock about a million and a half dollars worth of inventory at any given moment, which is better than most organizations our size," he says.

Last Mile Gear also has a staff dedicated specifically to helping with returns and warranty issues. "If we sold it to them, we're their advocate when things don't go right," Petrillo says. "That's what we're here for."

The company has a wide range of clients worldwide—Petrillo says about a third of Last Mile Gear's business is done with customers outside the United States. "The majority of our sales overseas are our own product," he says. "Because the Cyclone product line is very specialized and very ruggedized, it's well respected in the oil and natural gas industries in particular."

And the vast majority of Last Mile Gear's customers, Petrillo says, come to the company through word of mouth. "Our existing customer base definitely takes very good care of us, and seems to speak very highly of us," he says.

The company also has its own growing networks of distributors. "Over the course of the last 24 months, our sales have gone from about 60 percent direct to now about 25 to 30 percent direct, with the rest of that going through distributors," Petrillo says.

But Last Mile Gear's greatest strength, Petrillo says, is the fact that Cascade Networks is using the same gear it sells. "Our real differentiators are the fact that we use the equipment we sell every day in our own network, our relationships with the manufacturers—and the level to which delve into the equipment and its function and its capabilities, which far exceeds anybody else that we compete directly with in the marketplace," he says.

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